BB: SCAC: Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference

[frank_ezelle]

I'm don't pretend to know how to translate these new rankings into Pool C selections, but surely it's significant that Rhodes is 5-2 against teams that routank it (1-1 against Emory and Millsaps, 1-0 against Wash U, Illinois Wesleyan, and Methodist).  On the face of it, isn't there a good case to be made for both Rhodes and Millsaps?

Doc, I'm with you that a good case could and should be made for both teams but I have no idea of how it will all work out.  I think it is safe to say that Rhodes and Millsaps are both better than some of the teams that will be playing in the NCAA's but we see that in the NCAA D1 basketball tournament each year.  I do think the automatic qualifiers filling the majority of the slots is the right way to go even if it means that the best 53 teams don't all get into the tournament.

What everyone at Rhodes and Millsaps needs to hope for right now is a lack of upsets in the remaining tournaments for automatic bids.  When the strongest teams win their league's AQ then it means less competition for Rhodes and Millsaps for a Pool C bid.  I hope everything works out just right where both SCAC teams get at-large bids--both teams are deserving and it is my belief that both teams would really perform well at a regional.

[frank_ezelle]

I have tried to look at the national thread on Pool C bids to figure out how things look for both Millsaps and Rhodes and I don't have a clue.  Obviously both teams are on the bubble and my feeling is that they are side-by-side on that bubble because there isn't much difference in the seasons posted by the two teams.  I choose to look at the minor differences between the teams in a way that gives Millsaps a slight edge and I would expect Rhodes fans to focus on the differences that give Rhodes the edge.  I hope that most SCAC fans are pulling for both teams to slip into the field.  I think both teams will do well if given the chance.

If the teams don't get in, there will be plenty of "what-ifs" for both teams.  To start with, Rhodes will wonder "what if we had won that 10-8 winner's bracket championship against Austin" and Millsaps will wonder "what if we had won that 9-7 game against Austin Sunday and forced a second game".  The difference between winning and losing is often small and this year the difference between being in or being out of the NCAA tournament will also be small.  What-ifs are just part of life and I think the only ones you can really regret are the "what-ifs I had tried harder", and I doubt that either team had one of those this season.

With the bracket announcements nearing, I want to once again congratulate the players and the coaches for both teams on an outstanding season.  Both teams won their regular season conference title, both teams did well against nationally ranked competition, their current records are outstanding with Rhodes at 36-10 and Millsaps at 35-11, and both teams did an outstanding job of representing their school and the SCAC.  Regardless of what the NCAA Selection Committee decides this afternoon, both teams have to be considered one of the best or possibly the best team in school history which is quite an accomplishment.  And by all accounts, both teams showed a tremendous amount of class while running up their impressive record, something I've come to expect from the vast majority of SCAC teams. 

I know I speak for all Millsaps fans in saying that it was a great year to follow the Majors and I feel sure that the Rhodes fans feel the same about their team.  I hope the fans from both teams get a chance to cheer just a little bit more.

[frank_ezelle]

For those wondering when the brackets come out and where they can find them, I originally thought the brackets were coming out this afternoon but it looks like they come out a 2 a.m. eastern time Monday morning--I won't be getting up in the middle of the night to check the brackets but it's the first thing I'll check when I get near a computer Monday morning.

I'm assuming that the bracket info will be posted at this NCAA site, but I'm sure that the word will go up on a thread under the national topics soon after the brackets come out.  Here's the NCAA website:

http://www.ncaasports.com/baseball/mens/schedules/diviii

[Pat Coleman]

Something as important as the selections would be posted on the front page of D3baseball.com, Frank, rather than just on the message board. People should absolutely check our site first.

[Spence]

Put on a pot of coffee then.

[Pat Coleman]

Will do, though 2 a.m. is 10 p.m. Jim Dixon Standard Time.

[Spence]

All part of the brilliant plan, eh?

[Pat Coleman]

Well, I'll burn the midnight oil too but probably just to provide tech support.

[frank_ezelle]

It is certainly a disappointing morning for the fans of Rhodes and Millsaps.  I won't be one of those fans who cries out that we were cheated, I just think both teams had to do more than what should have been necessary this year because of the weakness of the SCAC overall.

I think it is safe to say that a low QOWI was the chief reason both teams failed to get an at-large bid so even if one of these two teams had won the SCAC, the other wasn't going to get an at-large bid.  The only reason Millsaps actually got in the hunt for an at-large was because Austin won 3 straight to get their in-region record over .500--if Rhodes had won the tournament (therefore keeping Austin below .500), Millsaps would have had virtually no shot at an at-large.

It's unfortunate that one or both of these two teams isn't going on to NCAA Tournament play this weekend.  I wish Austin well in the tournament and I hope they get a win or two--I think their lack of pitching depth won't allow them to go very deep in the tournament but maybe I'm wrong.  It was as deep as it needed to be to win the new SCAC Tournament setup and that's the main goal they were trying to achieve this season.  I hope we aren't at a point that this is the only way an SCAC team will get to the NCAA Tournament.

[frank_ezelle]

I know I'm probably the last one on board over here--things clear out pretty fast when the season closes.  So maybe I writing to myself but when has that ever stopped me.

Here are the teams in the South Regional with their record and their seeding:
1. Emory (35-7)
2. Salisbury (32-8)
3. York (Pa.) (29-12)
4. Methodist (29-13)
5. Bridgewater (Va.) (21-21)
6. Ferrum (22-16)
7. Villa Julie (24-20)

Here we have Emory as the top team in the Region with a 35-7 record.  Then split with Millsaps (35-11) on the season and Rhodes (36-10).  I know that Rhodes and Millsaps are the equal of Emory in this regional. 

I can't say much about Salisbury or York but I do know that Methodist lost their head-to-head against Rhodes and they are only 3-6 against the teams in this regional.  When I look at the records of Bridgewater, Ferrum, and Villa Julie, I applaud them for winning their conference automatic qualifier but I doubt that these teams are on par with Rhodes and Millsaps.

I look at this and I just have to wonder about the setup when teams that are the same caliber as the 1-4 seeds in a regional are left out of the tournament.  Yes, Millsaps or Rhodes could have gotten in by winning the SCAC Tournament but that's not a guarantee for any team.  After all, many of the Pool C's teams came from favorites who didn't win their conference tournaments including #1 ranked Wooster.  Maybe the time has come to expand the number of at-large teams.

[Pat Coleman]

They were just expanded in 2006.

[Lynx Tracker]

No Frank, you are not alone.  I just stopped by the board to see if last night's cruel "joke" at the expense of the Rhodes Lynx had been commented on...or perhaps had been merely the side-effect of an "undigested bit of beef".  Last night I woke up shortly before 3 am, and in a curious—although hazy moment, decided to check the D-III website to see if the at-large bids had been posted. To my delight—and to the delight of 32 wide-awake young men miles away in Memphis, Tennessee, Rhodes was listed among the Central Regional slots. I went back to bed feeling like a million bucks, only to awake later, finding out that Rhodes was passed over due to a mistake.

Dewey Wins!!!

Oh well, the players at Rhodes and Millsaps can take some satisfaction knowing that few teams paired in the Regionals will boast 71 wins between them...some not even 50. Short of winning the SCAC Tournament—what could these teams have done differently that would have gotten them a bid?

[frank_ezelle]

That's a move in the right direction (referring to Pat's post about the expansion in 2006).  I guess I'm just looking at it from a percentage standpoint.  I may have my numbers off slightly but I think this is accurate enough for discussion:

--There are 350 D3 teams.
--53 teams go to the NCAA Tournament.
--38 slots are reserved for Automatic qualifiers and Pool B.
--That leaves about 312 teams looking at the remaining 15 at-large bids, meaning less than 1 in 20 will get an at-large.  I'm going to guess that there are a handful of leagues that are almost assured of getting a second team in so that 1 in 20 really gets squeezed down to an even smaller number.  

I know that you have to draw the line somewhere and you can't let every team with a winning record into the draw but I do think the number of at-large teams is too limited when you have legitimate contenders with excellent records being left out of the field.  

Naturally I think Millsaps should be in the field but I could also point to Rhodes with their 1-1 record vs. Emory, 1-0 vs. Methodist, 1-0 vs. Washington U., 1-0 vs. Ill. Wesleyan along with the 1-1 vs. Millsaps.  They obviously can play with the big boys and win the majority of those games but there's no room in the field for them after all they have done this season--at the very least you would think that if 7-team regionals are acceptable to the NCAA then they could expand to 7 teams in every regional and bring in 3 more nationally ranked and regionally ranked teams.

[Pat Coleman]

I agree -- every field could be 32 or 64 and it would be a lot happier for all involved.

What I hope is that, as schools finish their provisional membership in the coming years, this committee will fight for incremental increases -- from 53 to 54 and 55, every time the required 6.5 teams join Division III and/or add baseball.

We have not seen this to date in any of the sports we cover.

[frank_ezelle]

Lynx Tracker, I had not heard about Rhodes being listed and then de-listed among the regional teams.  What makes that so brutal is that they deserve to be among the 53 still playing.  I'm curious if they had a seeding for Rhodes when they were listed or if they just had the list of teams.

It also makes me wonder if Rhodes was the 54th team.  I've said before that Rhodes and Millsaps were probably side-by-side in the NCAA rankings.  I would argue that Millsaps deserved the bid for having the same basic record in the tougher half of the conference.  You would argue that Rhodes had the better record against nationally ranked teams.  In the end I think it would get back to Rhodes being able to bus to the Central Regional and Millsaps having to fly, thereby giving Rhodes the nod.

But you are right.  Millsaps and Rhodes did prove themselves among the nation's elite this year and both teams accomplished a lot.  They both just missed out because their opponents didn't win enough games and there's not a whole lot you can do to control that.